Still Life
1GG, Enchantment, Odyssey Uncommon
GG: Still Life becomes a 4/3 Centaur creature until end of turn.
It's still an enchantment

I wanted to break Still Life. I began with a rough outline of a deck with the idea to test it and
then make the appropriate tweaks.

Version 1

4 Still Life
4 BoP
4 Squirel Nest
4 Lay of the Land
4 Wrath of God
4 Disenchant
4 CoH
3 Reprisal
3 Moment's Peace
3 Rout
2 Holistic Wisdom
1 Overrrun

Land:
8 Forest
8 Plains
4 Brushland

Sideboard:
4 Disrupting Scepter
4 Dodecapod
3 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Sacred Ground
1 Moment's Peace
1 Rout

After prelimary testing I found I did have a very good card in the deck:

Holistic Wisdom
1GG, Enchantment, Odyssey Rare
2, Remove a card in your hand from the game: Return target card from your graveyard to your hand if it shares
a type with the card removed this way. (The card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land and sorcery.)

I had more than enouigh to cards to begin abusing it. The Squirel nests were there for exchange with CoPs, Holistic,
Sacred Ground, etc. and could help me recover quickly from a Wrath.

A simple concept. Wrath and rout and finish with a good beatdown. So I posted the deck at bdominia for comments:

By Demi God (Demigod) on Monday, November 26, 2001 - 10:32 pm:

New Idol? No Idol's replacement in a deck that runs reliable Green mana.
It's just as hard to kill as Idol was. You don't have to tap out on your turn to activate it, And the best
part it doesn't go away with an Obliterate. I think it could easily be better then Idol was.

Right you are Demi god. However, I was often beaten to a pulp before I gained control in ptesting the deck.
That's bad. R/G was bad. I did notice that the best card in the deck was Holistic Wisdom though.
Then I got a new response:

By quinn murphy on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 12:49 am:

I think that the wisdom should be abused as much as possible in conjuction with the chant/bursts/peace...
you use each as they help to keep you alive early game. Then apply the beatdown with the lifes & nest, while locking the
opponent down with wisdom-chant.

Why didn't I think of that. So I redesigned the deck:

Version 2

4 Holistic Wisdom
4 Still Life
4 Lay of the Land
4 Harrow
2 Moment's Peace

4 Wrath of God
4 Disenchant
4 Orrim's chant
4 Life Burst

Land:
9 Forest
9 Plains
4 Brushland

Sideboard:
4 Disrupting Scepter
4 Dodecapod
3 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Sacred Ground
2 Moment's Peace

I originally had planned to abuse the card Still Life. However, it soon became obvious that Holistic Wisdom was the card
that was abusive. Turbo-Chant had always been a pet deck but it lacked the finish and consistenty I looked for.
This deck is a Turbo-Chant deck powered by the versatility of Holistic Wisdom. The deck discards Instants
to re-use Orrim's Chant and to lockdown the opponent. Holistic Wisdom is the most skill-intensive card
in Standard. It also is one of the most powerful.

Still life is its one win condition and the extra Wisdoms are discarded to bring them back if destroyed. Still
Life is immune to global effects. Obliterates, Wraths , Routs, etc., can not handle it at all.

The deck is not easy to play. You need to build up to four mana quickly and begin using your Wraths, Chants and
Moment's Peace to keep the dogs at bay. The Lay of the Lands and Harrows are there just to thin the deck and can be reused
until all your land is thinned out. Life Bursts are a constant source of life with recursion and I can handle Finkel
and R/g now. I added four Scepters to the side for control decks and thewy worked wonders. A couple od ecxtra Peace were added
for those extremely aggressive decks.

I then got an e-mail directing me to this deck:

he Wise Man Never Dies Jarrod Bright

1 Questing Phelddagrif

4 Holistic Wisdom
4 Orim`s Chant
3 Counterspell
3 Absorb
4 Syncopate
1 Dromar`s Charm
4 Wrath of God
1 Lobotomy
1 Treva`s Charm
1 Disenchant
4 Opt
4 Fact or Fiction
1 Still Life

2 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Coastal Tower
4 Elfhame Palace
2 Salt Marsh
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Brushland
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Skycloud Expanse
1 Dromar`s Cavern
1 Treva`s Ruins
1 Plains
2 Island

Okay. this deck is a thing of beauty. It is exteremely difficult to master however. It is prone to slow starts due to the
number of tap lands but can fifle through the deck much more efficiently than my build. It also has the countermagic to
completely control the game and plenty of removal and life gain. Wow. Imagine casting eight FoFs during the course of a game.
It is replete with silver bullets that can be re-used over and over. Is this the definitive version then?
Well, it is certainly better against control. I'm not sure that it is better against burn or aggro though.
Mr. Bright believes this is the best control deck in Standard. In the right hands he is probably correct.

However, I am a random scrub accustomed to building decks for my associates that can be mastered after a good play
testing session. The G/W version has some complexity but an intuitive player can get the hang of it pretty easily. It has performed well against most archtypes and is not as combo-reliant as Rice Snack and others of a similar ilk.

Still Life might still have other applications outside these deck types. Obliterate/Wurm decks seem a good fit.
However, I found it a 'win more' card in those builds.